Show Photos Blitz!

We spent our Father's Day weekend at a Dressage / Horse Trials at CAF (my husband should get Horse Dad / Horse Husband of the year!).  Show was on Sunday, so we had all Saturday afternoon to load up, arrive, and school.  Hotter than Hell on Saturday - gotta love Indiana weather - but we survived.

We went thru all this for me to enter one Dressage class...to which my daughter's trainer / boss asked:
 'Why did you not enter another class?'

Me:  I need to work on Canter.

Trainer / Boss:  Pssshh (or something resembling that noise)...just kick the Mare and get thru it.

She was threating me before she left that I will show Intro C this coming weekend, of which I am NOT signed up for, or she will call the show secretary and enter me.  Gotta love her.

Daughter did not show, but was around most of Saturday & Sunday due to two other riders from the barn where she is a working student, were competing.  Lex drove the diesel and gooseneck with the competing horses to the show - backed it up and parked it - fairly straight!  Just one of the many new skills she has aquired.

Schooling went well on Saturday, as daughter came for riding boot camp refresher course on Riva on Friday evening.  Concentrating on 'Yes, Mare, you can bend and do a 20 meter trot circle'.  Followed by reminding her she can 20 meter circle in canter.

We schooled in the actual dressage arena that we would compete in on Sunday, plus briefly schooled in both indoor warm ups.  On Sunday, my ride time was not until 12:28 pm.  Temps were very warm so I opted for no more than a 30 minute warm up.  I did get her out and hand walk her around the show grounds on Sunday morning - let her graze a bit and relax.

I got tacked up and in the indoor warm up at noon - to which I hear over the speaker that the Dressage ring is running 15 minutes ahead.  No worries - I was going to take my time and if I was not ready until 12:28 - then that is when I would ride my test.  This is the first show that I have felt semi relaxed and confident (big step for me). 

 Warm up:

When I felt Riva relax and settle - we had circled, went up centerline and halted softly - we headed over to the outdoor warm up.  A few riders had went ahead, out of order, but I did a few transitions and circles and made sure I had Riva's attention before I said I was ready.

Riva's reaction to entering the dressage arena to test:

Riva deciding she WILL go in:

During test:

My very bad decision to switch my whip during free walk (will not do that again!)

What our free walk COULD have looked like across the entire diagonal:

Final Halt:



Happily walking back to the barn (can ya tell the daughter very rarely wears shorts?):

I did not know our score yet, but felt really good about the test:

And...where did my black & white horse go?  Can you believe she is on night turn-out?

Lots still to work - stop leaning to my left, dropping my left shoulder, left foot/toe sticking out (can I just get a replacement left side of my body?), elbows need to stay bent and back, more giving hands and arms, the list never ends.

I put off going to look at my score since I was afraid it was not as good as I thought - but I got a 65.313% - our personal highest score!  And...our first blue ribbon!

Ok, ok...it is on to Intro C we go.